Remarks to the community at Pine Ridge Indian Reservation

Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents, July 12, 1999

July 7, 1090

Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President, and thank you to all of you here from Pine Ridge and all the other tribal leaders who are here for HUD's Shared Vision Conference. I am profoundly honored to be in Pine Ridge and in the Lakota Nation. In fact, to try to demonstrate my appreciation and respect, I would like to try - to try to say something in Lakota. Mitakuye oyasin. My neighbors, my friends, we are all related.

Consider those who have come here today to join hands with you, along with Secretary Cuomo, Secretary Glickman, your great congressional delegation, our Democratic leader Tom Daschle in the United States Senate and Senator Johnson, Congressman Thune. You don't know this, but we have Members of Congress from all over America who have some here to express their support and their commitment to join you in building a better tomorrow: Congressman Ed Pastor from Arizona; Congressman Dale Kildee from the State of Michigan; Congressman Jim Clyburn from South Carolina; and Congressman Paul Kanjorski from Pennsylvania, he has come all the way from Pennsylvania to be here.

I want to thank the other people from the administration, especially Assistant Secretary of the Interior Kevin Gover and Lynn Cutler in the White House, who work with all of our Native American leaders around America, for what they do. I want to thank the CEO of Fannie Mae, Frank Raines; the CEO of Norwest, Mark Oman; the PMI President, Roger Haughton; Mortgage Bankers Association President, Don Lange; Champion Homes CEO, Walter Young - for all the work that they are prepared to do in building a better future, and they're here today.

I want to thank my good friend Jesse Jackson, for never letting us forget our common obligations. I thank the other members of our delegation today - Bart Harvey from Enterprise; Al From from the Democratic Leadership Council. I'd like to thank the young AmeriCorps volunteers who are here today for all the work they do.

I would like to finally say a word of appreciation to all the people who live here on this reservation, who welcomed me into their homes, who talked to me today as I walked down their streets. I thank especially Geraldine Blue Bird, who Secretary Cuomo mentioned - she let me sit on her porch, and she told me how she tries to make ends meet for the 28 people that share her small home and the housetrailer adjoining.

I thank the children who stopped their playing and shook hands with me and listened to me while I encouraged them to stay in school and to go on to college and to live out their dreams. I want to bring you greetings from two people who are not here - first, from Vice President Gore, who has headed our empowerment zone effort that Pine Ridge became a part of today. And, second, just a little over an hour ago, I talked to the First Lady, and Hillary has spent more time in Indian country than any First Lady in history. She is intensely committed to this effort, and she asked me to say hello to you.

President Salway said today I was the only President ever to come to an Indian reservation for a nation-to-nation business meeting. I remember back in 1994, I invited all the tribal leaders in America to the White House, and it was the first such gathering since the presidency of James Monroe in the 1820's. Now, I know that Calvin Coolidge came to Pine Ridge in the 1920's, and that President Roosevelt visited another Native American reservation, but no American President has been anywhere in Indian country since Franklin Roosevelt was President. That is wrong, and we're trying to fix it today.

I was profoundly moved by the pipe ceremony, just as I was when your congressional delegation took me last night not only to Mount Rushmore but to the Crazy Horse Memorial, and to the museum that is there with it.

But I ask you today, even as we remember the past, to think more about the future. We know well what the failings of the present and the past are. We know well the imperfect relationship that the United States and its Government has enjoyed with the tribal nations.

But I have seen today not only poverty, but promise. And I have seen enormous courage. I came here today for three reasons. First of all, to celebrate the empowerment zone and the housing projects that are going on here now. Second, to talk about my new markets initiative and what else we can do. But, third, with the business leaders who are here - and I've already introduced them, but I'd like to ask the business leaders I just mentioned to stand up. We want to send a message to America that this is a good place to invest. Good people live here. Good people live in Indian country, they deserve a chance to go to work. [Applause] Thank you. Thank you.

You've already heard President Salway and Secretary Cuomo recite the statistics. It's a hot day out here, and I know you're suffering in the Sun. But I want to send a message to America. So I just want to say a few things, and I want you to think about this. Think about the irony of this. We are in the longest period of economic growth in peacetime in our history. We have in America almost 19 million new jobs. We have the lowest unemployment rate ever recorded for African-Americans and Hispanics. For over 2 years our country has had an unemployment rate below 5 percent. But here on this reservation, the unemployment rate is nearly 75 percent. That is wrong, and we have to do something to change it, and do it now.